Contextuality and Catholicity: The Task of Orthodox Theology in Ecumenical Theological Education

The essay unfolds theological foundations for theological education in ecumenical perspective from Orthodox perspectives seeing it as a worldwide enterprise fundamental to the mission of the church, not in its institutional character, but in its eschatological awareness of being a foretaste of the Kingdom of God. The relation between early ecumenical optimism and enthusiasm towards the goal of the visible unity of the church and the wide application of contextuality, i.e. the recognition of the contextual character of theology as a method from the 1970s onwards is discussed. According to the Orthodox perspectives, the ecumenical movement has lost its momentum and coherence and its determination for the quest of visible unity with the predominant acceptance of contextuality as the guiding principle in ecumenical discussions and theological education. The author argues that Orthodox theology has to deepen the understanding of its own contextuality and soften the existing antithesis between contextuality and catholicity of theology and theological education. Orthodox perspectives should underline the relevance of a fundamental unity of divine revelation, as represented in the broad understanding of Christian tradition, which is for the entire created world, not only for believers and which is challenging both a potential distortion, wherein unity is identified with the maintenance of denominational loyalty, as well as all contextual expressions of Christian theology with regard to their relation to the overall goal of church unity. The paper concludes with a plea for all Orthodox theological education to be of some real service to the church in deciding to deal both with current issues (to be contextual) and not to lose sight of the past (to be oriented to catholicity and church unity), to both open up to ecumenical theological education while at the same time maintaining a strong commitment to the common church tradition.     

Grace, Doubt, and Evil: The Constructive Task Of Reformation Theology

The Lutheran vocation is to be a friend of grace; and since the 16th century Lutheran systematic theology has built upon a foundation of grace. Two apparent barriers to grace need addressing. First, doubt in the form of agnosticism and atheism provides a metaphysical argument against God's existence. Second, evil and suffering provide a moral argument against God's existence. From a Lutheran point of view the question of God's graciousness takes precedence over God's existence.     

Facing Europe: visualizing spontaneous in-group projection

Individuals perceive their own group to be more typical of a shared superordinate identity than other groups are. This in-group projection process has been demonstrated with both self-report and indirect measures. The two studies reported here extend this research to the visual level, specifically, within the domain of faces. Using an innovative reverse-correlation approach, we found that German and Portuguese participants' visual representations of European faces resembled the appearance typical for their own national identity. This effect was found even among participants who explicitly denied that one nation was more typical of Europe than the other (Study 1). Moreover, Study 2 provides experimental evidence that in-group projection is restricted to inclusive superordinate groups, as the effect was not observed for visual representations of a category ("Australian") that did not include participants' in-group. Implications for the in-group projection model, as well as for the applicability of reverse-correlation paradigms, are discussed.     

The World in Theology

This article focuses on the activity of French Protestant theologian Georges Casalis as a co‐editor of the French journal Christianisme social (Social Christianity) in the turbulent period between 1965 and 1970. The journal reflected the conflicts of the times on issues such as relations with Eastern Europe, Christian–Marxist dialogue, the new impulses coming from revolutionary movements of the South, and the events of May 1968.     

The Vatican and Europe: Political Theology and Ecclesiology in Papal Statements from Pius XII to Benedict XVI

The article examines the origins and evolution of the Vatican's political theology and ecclesiology for Europe from Pius XII (especially after the Second World War) and including the pontificates of John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. It seeks to examine the continuities of the ‘Idea of Europe’ in papal thought against a background of changing political context – the end of the Second World War, the Cold War, the fall of the communist state system, the emergence of a united but diverse Europe after 1989. The political structures of the continent now include within its geographic sweep Western and Eastern Christian churches which, divided by tradition and modern history, find their relationship a key marker in the contemporary religious identity of Europe. This reality is a significant framework for Vatican thinking on Europe especially for John Paul II and Benedict XVI.     

解放神学的意识形态问题

解放神学有关“穷人”、“行动者”、“解放”等要义的意识形态问题 ,提示宗教不仅是人从当下境遇生发的终极追求 ,也是人 (以团契方式践履 )的现实关怀 ;作为遭受殖民统治、反对独裁与“资本”奴役 ,争取民族国家权益 ,瞩意宗教革新之特定地区特定历史阶段所形成的社会思潮 ,解放神学在与各色各样意识形态的冲突和对话之间 ,体现了基督宗教多元发展的文化—政治神学转向 ,其富有特色的释经原则、信仰理解和教会运动 ,别开生面地诠释了一些为无神论者所忽略的马克思主义立场、观点和方法 ,影响深远地透析出源于宗教政治中的马克思主义精神力量     

The Promise of Postmodern Theology

Books reviewed in this article:
Graham Ward (ed.). The Blackwell Companion to Postmodern Theology     

从新约的历史逻辑审视汉语神学与圣经神学

本文从新约的历史逻辑审视汉语神学,指出新约的历史逻辑研究,虽然和圣经神学在研究内容上(信仰观方面)有某种程度的关联,但它在研究形式上由于还致力于新约的语言观、时间观、正义观的阐明,所以,它远远超出了一般以讨论圣经文本的信仰教义为使命的圣经神学,应当属于人文-社会学的新约学范畴.其人文性表现在新约文本的语言观、时间观的阐释中;其社会学的特征体现在新约文本的正义观的论说中.在研究方法上,新约的历史逻辑在根本上区别于圣经神学.汉语神学的描述性的定义为:以圣经基督论为启示的中心、以汉语为母语的基督徒的信仰为经验的根据、以汉语思想文化传统为阐释的背景、以历代教会及其神学思想(希腊化、拉丁化、欧美)的学典为言说的参照、以汉语学者的基督经验的宗教学研究为基础的神学.其次,从新约的历史逻辑审视圣经神学,其结果至少应当包括关于耶稣基督事件本身的言说、关于耶稣基督事件的人言的言说(初期教会如何看待耶稣基督事件留下的人言)、关于耶稣基督事件的历史事实的清理.如何具体地把这三者揭示出来,构成新约的历史逻辑为方法论的汉语圣经神学的内容.     

The Role of Justification in Contemporary Theology

Books reviewed:
Mark C. Mattes, The Role of Justification in Contemporary Theology. Reviewed by Richard Bell Nottingham University